"They've been waving that white flag for about...half an hour I reckon," an American soldier updated Britain.

The British general looked through the binoculars he was holding, noticing that the soldier was right.

Kuro and Lutz were taking turns waving a huge white flag on a distant hill, and Britain was starting to get confused and worried.

"They appear to be yelling out at us," Britain replied. "Well, specifically me."

"Any idea on what they're sayin', General?" the Texan soldier wondered.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Britain stated, putting the binoculars down at his side. "Due to my unfortunate knack of reading lips from my...younger years, they want me to speak with them. Alone, to be precise."

Since Britain was the human personification of, well, Britain, he needed to keep his identity as a pirate, and many other things, a secret.

"But I reckon you're not going alone, right?" the soldier questioned.

"I will bring some backup in case something goes wrong, yes," Britain smirked. "You don't have to worry about them, okay? They're not going to hurt you. Not if I have anything to say about it."

The Texan nodded, going back to his friends.

Britain walked into the tent again, seeing that his friends and Kalda were still in there.

"What happened?" Kalda asked, seeing Britain grab a glass of water instead of tea like he normally would have.

She knew that was a sure sign that something was up, and she didn't like the feeling that she was getting in her stomach.

"Well, it appears that our...uninvited guests over yonder are waving a white flag and asking for me specifically to come over there, alone, to speak with them," Britain explained casually before drinking his entire glass of water.

"And you're casual about that why?" America asked, shocked.

"Well, it's nothing to get in a tizzy about," Britain answered, getting some more water. "They can wait."

"What's more important than talking to them now?" America questioned. "If they have a white flag, then we need to go and see what's going on."

"My thoughts exactly," Britain agreed, "but I can't just walk over there on my own, now can I?"

"Isn't zhat why you came to us in zhe first place?" France asked flatly, unamused.

Britain looked around awkwardly, suddenly becoming confused.

"Yes...I guess that's why," he said, still seeming confused. "Uh...what's going on, exactly?"

"And this is why you always drink tea instead of water," Kalda smirked, forcing a tea cup into his hand. "You're going through a tea withdrawal, and it's making you sound like the old geezer that you are."

America laughed at that, Britain ignoring them both as he drank his tea.

Then he dropped the glass cup onto the ground, suddenly becoming more alert and his old self.

"There's something that I have to tell-" he started, but he was cut off.

"Let me guess," France interrupted with an eye roll. "Zhe Second Player Axis are waving a white flag a long way from here and asking for you to talk to zhem alone?"

"Yes, actually," Britain replied, turning serious. "How did you know?"

"You told us during your tea withdrawal," Kalda laughed, and Britain blushed madly in embarrassment.

"I am never going to live this down, am I?" he asked, putting his hands over his red face to save what little bit of his pride he had left.

"Probably not," China chuckled.

"Anyway, is zhere a plan you have in mind to go and talk to zhem?" France asked in annoyance. "Or are we just going to sit here gawking?"

"Oh, no," Britain smirked. "I have a plan, all right. I want you four to come with me. You can hide in the trees and bushes with your rifles and whatever else you want. That way, in case something goes wrong, there will only be three bad Axis and five good Allies."

"Uh, I think you mean three bad Axis and six good Allies," Kalda corrected him.

"No, I mean five good Allies versus three bad Axis," Britain replied. "You are not coming with us this time. You have twisted my arm enough just being in our camp. I am afraid letting you come with us this time is too much of a risk."

"But they won't recognize me," Kalda calmly argued. "I mean, they haven't already seen me yet, right?"

"Whether they recognize you or not is not the point, Kalda," Britain stated. "Please just listen to me this time, okay?"

"I would, Kalda," France agreed. "We have risked too much with you. You are an important game piece here, and we can not risk losing you."

"Lose Kalda, game over," Russia added sadly.

"And we are not letting it get to game over," China told her.

"I've played enough video games to know that "game over" is bad, Kalda dude," America nodded. "You're like a sister to me. I don't want to lose you. Not here, not now, okay?"

Kalda looked at all of them, all of their faces showing both seriousness and worry.

She sighed, but then looked at them again.

"Please just let me come," she told them softly. "I think I know what's going on, and I need you to trust me, okay?"

"This isn't the time to risk a hunch, Kalda," Britain firmly told her. "You are staying here at the camp, and that is final."

"But I do know what's going on," Kalda answered. "Please, just listen to-"

"THIS IS WAR, KALDA!" Britain yelled at her, banging his hands on the table and glaring at her. "IT'S NOT A GAME ANYMORE!"

Everyone was shocked by his outburst, but Kalda didn't even flinch.

It seemed like she had almost expected him to do that, so she just took in a calming breath.

"You don't understand," Kalda calmly told him. "Can you please just trust me?"

Britain sighed, closing his eyes as he grunted.

"Ugh!" he growled. "Fine, but you stay with France and within his eyesight, got it?"

He turned his back on her before Kalda could even respond, walking out of the tent with his rifle and other gear in his hands without even giving them a second glance.

Kalda let out a small breath, grabbing her own rifle and some ammunition.

I better be ready for real target practice, she thought sadly, walking at the back of the line in silence for the fear of messing everything up again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kalda just stayed quiet, keeping her distance from Britain.

When Kalda wanted to give someone their space, she went all out.

All she did was stare at his back, praying that he would at least look at her once to make sure she was okay.

That never happened, however, and so Kalda was starting to give up.

"He won't stay zhat mad forever," France tried to tell her, his voice soft.

"Yes, he will," Kalda replied, her voice also soft. "I shouldn't have even opened up my mouth."

"Romano raised you well," France smiled with a chuckle. "Please don't ever forget zhat, okay?"

"I don't see what he did," Kalda scoffed. "All he taught me was to keep to myself, never open up my mouth like I did back there, and to never trust anyone but my family. Look at where I am, uncle France! I broke all of those rules! I'm worthless to everyone now!"

France sighed, stopping at his assigned spot.

He put his hands on Kalda's shoulders, looking at her in the eyes as he listened to the others' footsteps recede deeper into the forest.

"Kalda, haven't you been paying attention zhis whole time?" he asked with a proud smile. "You have gotten farzher zhan any of your zhree brozhers. None of zhem have become zhe warrior zhat you are."

"What are you saying?" Kalda asked, confused.

"I am saying, Kalda, zhat Romano made you zhe fighter zhat he never was," France explained, his smile growing. "Don't you see zhat? He would have never even dreamed of fighting in zhis War, and yet here you are fighting in it for him."

Kalda looked into his blue eyes, seeing that everything he was saying was true.

"He made you a warrior, Kalda," France repeated. "When will you realize zhat?"

"I-I don't know," Kalda stammered, adjusting the rifle on her back. "I-I never thought about it that way, I guess."

"Just come on," France softly replied. "We have to be ready to back Britain up in case somezhing goes wrong."

Kalda nodded, following him into the bushes.

"Can you help me load up my gun, uncle France?" Kalda asked softly, and France just nodded.

"Of course, my little niece," he agreed, getting some bullets out of Kalda's ammunition bag.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once everyone was set up, Britain walked up to the six Axis.

"I thought that there was only going to be three of you," Britain said.

He saw that the good Axis were handcuffed to the tent, the three bad ones sitting at a table in front of him.

"Don't you want to sit down?" Luciano sweetly offered.

"I would rather stand, if that is all right?" Britain answered, being calm, cool, and collected like usual. "I need the circulation."

Luciano laughed at his answer, but he didn't mind.

"If you insist," he agreed with a smirk.

"Is Kaldy with you?" Veneziano asked in worry.

Britain looked at the young man, then Germany, then Japan, and then Luciano again.

"What did they do?" was all he asked, ignoring Veneziano's question.

"Aw, I'm just having some fun with them," Luciano answered, his eyes flashing from red to violet.

Suddenly, Britain was greeted with the sound of rifles cocking; he hoped that they were his friends' guns, but then something completely unexpected happened.

There were screams and gun shots, and Britain turned around to see the worst sight that he had ever seen.

He saw that the others' Second Players were there, and that they were in a massive fist fight.

Britain instantly ran into the forest, ignoring Luciano's sickening laughter.

"You didn't think that I was going to make this easy did you, Britain?" he asked with a grin.

"I could have hoped!" Britain called back, knowing that his presence was somewhere around the forest.

He hid behind a tree, hoping to see everything from a distance.

"Hey!" a voice called. "Zhere's zhe new member! Get zhem!"

Britain knew who the person speaking was and who they were planning on attacking, so he ran further into the forest to save them.

Kalda screamed, getting attacked by Kuro and Lutz.

Britain gasped, stopping in his tracks.

Luciano was standing in front of them, a throwing knife in one hand, a pistol in the other, and a sick smirk on his face.

"I told you that it wasn't going to be easy," Luciano told him. "Now, you're going to have to play my game since I'm done playing yours!"

With that, they disappeared; at first, Britain was in shock. Then, everything came crashing down on him all at once.

"NO!" he screamed, leaning against a tree trunk.

He felt limp, and fell to his hands and knees.

The others came, seeming to be in pretty good shape.

"Did they-" America cut off, his voice sounding choked up.

China went dead silent, Russia looked at the ground, America looked at the sky, and France walked over to the angry and depressed Brit.

"We will get her back, Britain," France assured him, "I promise."

Suddenly, Britain stood up and attacked France in a hug, catching the Frenchman by surprise.

"I really need a hug!" Britain sobbed. "Please shut up and just hug me back!"

France smiled even though Britain couldn't see it, chuckling to himself as he wrapped Britain in a loving hug.

"I've got you, Angeltarre," France whispered to the crying Britain, "I've got you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Is the prisoner secure?" Luciano asked, looking out of the window in the house.

The Second Players had decided to take over First Player Germany's house, hoping that First Player Prussia wouldn't come and interrupt their "important work."

"Which one?" Lutz dumbly replied. "We have four."

"The one that we just captured!" Luciano yelled in answer. "You know, the one we chained to the wall in the basement?"

"Oh, right," Lutz nodded, clearing his throat. "Zhey are not talking. Zhey von't look at us, eizher. Zhey are keeping zheir head down, und zhey von't say a vord."

Luciano took note of the update, grabbing a belt from his counterpart's closet.

He walked down the stairs, into the living room, and then into the basement, Lutz hot on his heels.

"Vhat are you going to do vith zhat belt?" Lutz wondered. "I zhought you said zhat you veren't going to torture zhe prisoner."

"Oh, I know what I said," Luciano smirked, "but I can't get my sister back if this man is here, now can I?"

He crouched in front of Kalda, lifting up her chin with his hand to make her look into his violet eyes.

Kalda had her eyes closed, and Luciano was about to scream.

"Open your eyes, prisoner!" he demanded, all sweetness gone.

Kalda opened up her brown eyes, but Luciano didn't recognize them like he should have.

"Since you're not going to talk, sir, I brought this belt along as persuasion," Luciano told her in a smooth voice. "Talk, and you don't get hurt. Don't talk, and, well, I'm sure that you can figure out the rest, hm?"

Kalda didn't answer him, and she didn't even sigh like she usually would have with a "Do Or Don't" decision like that.

Then, she took a few seconds to think about it.

I actually don't want to get hit with that belt, she reasoned with herself, and I do need to find the First Player Axis, so...I might as well do this for myself and my friends.

"Fine, I'll talk," Kalda gave up, and Luciano gasped.

He had expected Kalda to be captured by him just as he had planned, but now that she was right there, the whole plan seemed impossible.

Had he accidentally captured her by mistake?

He wanted to capture her, but not this early in the game.

"What's the matter?" Kalda asked, mockery in her voice. "Haven't you seen your little Kaldy before?"

"Vhat did ve do?" Lutz exclaimed. "Did ve accidentally capture her by mistake?"

"I thought that this was what you wanted," Kalda replied, still looking at her evil brother.

Luciano let out a shaky breath, trying to find the key for the chains.

Then he remembered that he had "accidentally" lost it, never knowing that it was Kalda as the prisoner the whole time.

"Can I get out of these chains, now?" Kalda inquired. "My arms are getting tired."

"I lost the key," Luciano stated simply, looking at her with genuine sympathy.

"Well this is fantastic," Kalda stated sarcastically, looking at the floor.

"I sent word out to the other Second Players like you wanted, and Oliver came over to see if you had found his-" Kuro cut off.

He noticed that Kalda was looking at the floor, Luciano was looking at Kalda with the worried "What Am I Going To Do With Her Now?" face, and Lutz was just standing in a corner sleeping.

"I say that we throw her into one of the Camps," Kuro suggested coldly. "We can watch her get stretched to death, or gassed."

Luciano turned to face Kuro, not liking that idea at all.

"Are you insane?" he yelled. "I would never, ever, ever do that to my sister! I love her way too much for that!"

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU CAPTURE ME IN THE FIRST PLACE, YOU JERK?" Kalda yelled at him, making Lutz wake up from his nap.

"LANGUAGE!" Kuro, Lutz, and Luciano yelled back in unison, looking at Kalda with firm expressions.

"What's with all of the yelling?" Oliver asked.

"And how did you get in here, exactly?" Luciano asked with a raised brow for emphasis.

"Oh, I just let myself in," Oliver replied with his usual grin. "I have this really weird knack for picking locks with my finger nails. I can teach you some time if you would like...."

Then, his eyes drifted off to Kalda.

He gasped, running up to her and kneeling in front of her.

"Oh, Kalda!" he exclaimed, taking her face in his hands. "What have they done to you, my sweet child? You even cut your hair like your brother's?"

"Get your hands off of my face before I kick you where you know it hurts the most," Kalda threatened, and the now nervous man did just that.

Oliver then eyed the belt that Luciano had in his hand, and he scowled.

"You didn't hit her, did you?" he inquired in a dark tone.

"I was going to," Luciano admitted coldly, "until she opened up her big yap."

"You said to talk and so I did!" Kalda replied. "Next time, don't say that if you don't want to hear me obey your stupid commands! You brought this upon yourself, dude! Besides, I'm a prisoner, aren't I? Shouldn't I be super annoying?"

"I'm not even going to have this conversation with you!" Luciano snapped. "You're annoying enough as it is!"

"So you captured my daughter," Oliver said to himself, "and you couldn't even bother to get the other five Allies why?"

He stood up, ready for a fight.

Before anyone could respond, there was the sound of distant chains breaking.

Three pairs of feet started to run as cheering followed.

The First Player Axis made their entrance into the boiler room where Kalda was, and so they stopped.

"KALDA!" Veneziano cried, running up to his sister before anyone could stop him.

He hugged her, and Kalda laughed as he started crying.

Veneziano never called her just "Kalda" very often; it was always "Kaldy" or "Little Kaldy."

"Shh, it's okay," Kalda soothed the crying man. "I'm okay, you're okay, we're okay, everyone is okay."

Luciano growled, done with the "happy good fun times" vibe that he was getting.

"You three, lock them up down here together since they like each other so much!" he ordered, looking at Lutz, Kuro, and Oliver.

The three Second Players obeyed, locking all four First Players in the boiler room back to back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What did I do to deserve this kind of torture, stars?" Britain asked softly, looking at the black, starry sky.

"Nozhing," France said from behind him. "You are a perfect Angel. Or...Demon, depending on what you like, I guess."

"Demon, preferably," Britain replied with a smile, still looking at the stars, "and funny. I never thought that you would have a French accent. I figured more German since we're in that territory."

"You are in mine, idiot!" France answered, whacking Britain on his head and sitting next to him on the trench's edge. "Normandy, to be specific."

"Ow!" Britain whined, rubbing his head as he looked at France beside him. "Haven't I been through enough pain already?"

"Just a little more for good luck," France smirked, patting Britain's head.

"Ugh," Britain groaned, putting the side of his head on France's shoulder. "Why am I such an idiot?"

"You had no idea zhat zhey were going to do zhis," France assured the blonde, wrapping an arm around him for comfort.

"I should have at least expected it," Britain sighed. "This isn't how I wanted this to turn out at all. I told her not to come with us! Why didn't she listen? I knew that this was going to happen, and yet-"

"And yet, zhey won't hurt her," France interrupted. "I know for a fact zhat zhey won't."

"But you don't know that!" Britain snapped. "No one does but the Lord above!"

France sighed, knowing that calming him down wasn't going to work this time.

"Okay, say you are right," France replied with a smirk. "How exactly do you plan on getting her back?"

"I don't have one," Britain mumbled, taking France's hand in both of his. "I just thought that they would bring her back after they figured out what they had done."

"Well, we can't wait forever," France answered.

Britain sighed, looking up at France and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I know," he answered softly.

"What have we been doing all of zhese years?" France smiled, changing the subject. "It's obvious to everyone zhat we love each ozher."

"And yet, we are too prideful to admit it," Britain chuckled.

"I zhink it's time zhat we stop lying to each ozher and everyone else," France suggested.

"How about we hook up later, okay?" Britain asked solemnly. "Right now, I just want to focus on Kalda without worrying about balancing a relationship on top of her."

France grinned, setting Britain on his lap and hugging the other blonde's waist.

France kissed Britain's neck, making his way up to his cheek, and then his lips.

They kissed each other passionately, eventually falling over and onto the ground.

It became a kissing war for them, and they didn't stop until a voice spoke.

"Seriously?" America asked, disgusted and angry. "Kalda just got kidnapped, and you two are out here making out like nothing happened?"

France and Britain pushed each other away immediately, acting like they didn't care even though their red faces betrayed their feelings.

"Uh," Britain cleared his throat, dusting himself off and standing up, "anyone got a plan on how to save Kalda?"